Man sues DHS, NSA for the right to parody them on mugs, T-shirts

LibertyManiacs For 10 years, a Minnesota man has been selling T-shirts, mugs, and other items with slogans like “Department of Homeland Stupidity” and “The NSA: the only part of the government that listens.” In 2011, the Department of Homeland Security and the National Security Agency sent a cease-and-desist order against Zazzle, the original manufacturer of these items for the website LibertyManiacs.com.

The government agencies argued that it is a crime to use, mutilate, or alter a government seal without permission. (The site has now switched over to CafePress.) On Tuesday LibertyManiacs owner Dan McCall sued those agencies, arguing that he has a First Amendment right to parody the DHS, the NSA, and other government offices, and that he should be allowed to use the relevant seals.

CATEGORIES

Cyber Parse was created to provide knowledge to help everyone understand and deal with the ever increasing threats we all face by Cyber Crime (Malware, Social Engineering, Phishing and hacking).
Our purpose is to provide the right information to our readers by breaking down and communicating knowledge relating to Cyber Crime, Cyber Security, Information Security and Computer Security, then using Risk Management practices to help translate the technical aspects of the Risks, Threats, Vulnerabilities and controls to reduce the risk into business language.